Jeanie Haye

Saturday

Sep 15, 2012 at 2:00 PM

1938-2012

1938-2012

Friends of Jeanie Haye will be saddened to hear of her sudden passing on August 3 in Palm Desert. Her husband Stan was with her.Jeanie was born in 1938 in Tsingtao, China. Her mother, an American, had gone to study at Yenching University near Beijing; her father was a British businessman employed by Standard Oil.During the Second World War and its immediate aftermath the family lived in China, New Mexico, and England, but settled in Santa Barbara in 1955. Jeanie earned her master’s in mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.On two significant occasions Jeanie was a witness to history. From a second floor window of the Standard Oil Building in London, she watched Queen Elizabeth II’s procession on her way to her coronation; and she saw the flash and felt the explosion of the first atomic bomb when she was in Las Cruces, New Mexico.Jeanie became a Sierra Club member in the 1960s in Santa Barbara, where she became a leader in the local chapter. She moved to Ridgecrest after her marriage to George Stillwell and promptly plunged into desert environmental issues. Red Rock Canyon was a special concern, along with monitoring illegal motorcycle activity. Never a dogmatist, she always was true to her principles while trying to bring disparate parties together to discuss sensitive environmental issues. After the death of George Stillwell, she married Stan Haye, also a desert activist, and together they went to countless meetings and read and discussed countless reports on environmental impacts. Jeanie is survived by her husband Stan, her nephew Hugh Nash, and her grandnieces, Sarah Garfield, Christina Paizanis, and Evelyn Witterman.All Souls’ Episcopal Church will hold a memorial service for Jeanie at 2 p.m. on September 24 at the building of the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert, 230 W Ridgecrest Boulevard, Ridgecrest. In lieu of flowers please make a contribution in Jeanie’s memory to All Souls’ Episcopal Church, 2714 S Richmond Rd., Ridgecrest CA 93555; or to your favorite environmental charity.